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SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



The so-called powdered hellebore, used as an insecticide by gardeners, 

 consists of either V. album or V. viride, the former being mostly 

 employed. 



Constituents of Veratrum Album. The drug contains a number 

 of alkaloids, of which the most important is protoveratrine, which 

 occurs to the extent of 0.03 per cent and forms monoclinic prisms 

 which are insoluble in water, soluble in strong alcohol, and with con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid give a greenish-colored solution which 

 gradually changes to blue and finally to violet. It also contains 

 the following alkaloids which are physiologically inactive or but 



FIG. 31. Several parenchyma cells from rhizome of Veratrum viride: a, cell 

 containing starch grains; 6, cell containing raphides of calcium oxalate. 

 After Bastin. 



feebly toxic: jervine (0.10 to 0.13 per cent) forms satiny, lustrous 

 prisms which are colored yellow with hydrochloric acid, the solution 

 afterwards changing to green; rubijervine (about 0.005 per cent) 

 forms long prisms which are colored yellow with concentrated sul- 

 phuric acid, the solution becoming orange and finally red; pseudo- 

 jervine forms hexagonal prisms which are colored yellow with con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid ; protoveratridine is a decomposition product 

 of protoveratrine and forms cubical prisms which are colored violet 

 with concentrated sulphuric acid, the solution afterward becoming 



